Welcome Anonymous !

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Recently on a secret group on Facebook somebody posted the characteristics of an enlightened jerk/ spiritual bypassing, I found it very interesting and could see the benefit of being aware of it

"My understanding of 'spiritual bypassing' applies to people who have a 'shift' or awakening, but still carry unresolved issues, which render the person quite challenging. It often expresses as a sort of self-righteous, callousness and passive aggression (or actual aggression). It's a 'condition' that's usually very obvious to everyone around - but not to the person themselves. "

"To me spiritual bypassing is avoiding to look at things with a "nondual" excuse. Like experiencing unwanted feelings and saying: "There is nobody to be sad, angry, disappointed...(you name it)." Or being angry or hurtful towards others and then saying: "But there is nobody to be hurt. We are all one.""

Georg wrote: To me spiritual bypassing is avoiding to look at things with a "nondual" excuse. Like experiencing unwanted feelings and saying: "There is nobody to be sad, angry, disappointed...(you name it)." Or being angry or hurtful towards others and then saying: "But there is nobody to be hurt. We are all one.""

This is quite interesting. My take is that since the self does not need to get enlightened, enlightenment is for the jiva. The only purpose of enlightenment for the jiva is moksha or freedom from suffering. And if one is spiritual bypassing, one does not have moksha because one does not know how to deal with the Jiva's feelings.

This is where Vedanta is superior to all non-dual teachings. It gives the jiva a secret weapon for moksha. This secret weapon is karma/dharma yoga and jnana. I firmly believe there is no moksha without karma yoga. And these spiritual bypassers are not applying karma yoga it seems. So even if they know who they are, what is the benefit of it, if there is no moksha?

The book "Wanderings in the Himalayas" written by Swami Tapovanam comes to mind. He was a such a great Swami (the guru of Swami Chinmayananda) and yet as is clear in the book, he practiced karma yoga all the time.

So unless karma yoga is practiced there is the danger of spiritual bypassing. For example, people can say "There is nobody to be sad, angry..." but they cannot deny that the sadness and anger that is there. Karma yoga neutralizes the sadness or anger and gives peace of mind/moksha.

I can vouch for this personally. Last night, I was tossing and turning, my mind was upset about something. The thought came to my mind: I am the whole, complete, limitless self. But the mind remained upset. This would have been a kind of spiritual bypassing--not acknowledging the situation which was making me upset (even thought I knew the feelings were just objects appearing in awareness).

Then, I took the karma yoga attitude to the situation and there was peace of mind and I went back to sleeping happily .

Georg wrote: Moksha from my limited perspective is knowing that one is limitless awareness and not the body/mind.Knowing how to deal with the Jiva's feeling sounds more like part of the purification process.

For me, knowing that one is limitless awareness is self-knowledge. And moksha is freedom from suffering--or rendering the vasanas non-binding or as you say purifying the mind.

I would be interested, could explain more in detail how you applied karma yoga to your situation last night

For me, Karma yoga is offering every action to Ishvara and accepting the results of every action as a gift (or prasad) from Ishvara. Now, I will admit that I'm not terribly good about offering every action to Ishvara beforehand but I am quite good as accepting all the results from Ishvara. So that night, my mind was agitated because I was worried about something that happened at work. When I applied karma yoga, I simply reminded myself that whatever had happened was Ishvara unfolding and that was the way it had to be. That thought reminded me that I had no real control over the situation anyway so why worry about it. That allowed me to relax in a difficult time. Basically, karma yoga for me is seeing Ishvara unfolding in every situation.

And I would also be interested how Swami Tapovanam applied Karma Yoga while he was wandering around. Could you give an example of how he described it in his book?

As you know, Swami Tapovanam was quite the adventurer Swami. Always on perilous journeys through the Himalayas to get to peaks, lakes and other places of pilgrimage. He describes some very difficult situations such as having to spend a night at a high altitude lake where it was extremely windy and cold and he was very sick. Or having to cross a large snowfield across a very high mountain pass with no adequate footwear and dangerous turns of weather. And sometimes, he expresses being worried or uncertain about whether he would survive--but he just left everything to Ishvara. He would see everything as Ishvara's blessing. If he was able to make it to his place of pilgrimage it was Ishvara's blessing. If he was not able to make it to his destination, it was still Ishvara's will and he happily accepted that and moved on to his next adventure.

As you know, I just love Swami Tapovanam and feel such a connection with him (even though I don't have half of his courage). Thanks for asking!

HI Mira, no Halloween here in the Bavarian village; although things change quickly so you might see some ghosts and other stuff in younger people's houses but there is no tradition for kids to go around and collect candy

And moksha is freedom from suffering--or rendering the vasanas non-binding or as you say purifying the mind.

Mmmh moksha is freedom from suffering which is equivalent to know that I am primarily limitless awareness and only secondly the apparent Jiva, right?

However, "rendering the vasanas non-binding" seems more like self-actualization to me and in my eyes ( I am happy to be corrected) is something which never ends because we never know when and how certain vasanas arise. I think of it more like constant vigilance which never ends.